Example: A pastor of a church counsels a young person, then grooms that young person for a period of time with the intent to sexually abuse the child. I believe scripture supports that this person, a spiritual leader in the church has committed sins that G_d has deemed as having a higher penalty than say, stealing an energy drink from a store.
Why would you say that???
Gal_5:21 Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.
God clearly equates the sin of envy and drunkenness with murder...Is that not clear to you???
I base my view from scripture.
Matthew
...blasphemy against the Holy Spirit is an unforgivable sin, where sinning against Jesus is forgivable.
John19:11
Jesus said to Pilate,”...he who delivered Me up to you has the greater sin.”
The Old Testament recognized different sacrifices for different sins. If all sins are equal, then different sacrifices would not be necessary.
Hebrews10:29
How much severer punishment do you think he will deserve who has trampled under foot the Son of God, and has regarded as unclean the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has insulted the Spirit of grace?”
Jesus said it would be more bearable on the day of judgment for Sodom than for Capernaum because of Capernaum’s unbelief and refusal to repent after witnessing His miracles (Matthew 11:23-24).
When Jesus spoke of his second coming and judgment, he warned that among those deserving punishment some would “be beaten with many blows” and others “with few blows” (Luke 12:47-48).
Jesus reserved His most fierce denunciations for the pride and unbelief of the religious leaders, not the sexually immoral (Matthew 23:13-36).
•”For if after they have escaped the defilements of the world by the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and are overcome, the last state has become worse for them than the first. 21 For it would be better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than having known it, to turn away from the holy commandment delivered to them,” (2 Pet. 2:20-21).
When the Israelites bowed before the golden calf at Mount Sinai, Moses charged them with committing a “great” sin (Exodus 32:30-31). A “great sin” appears to be more serious, in some sense, than just “sin.”
In Paul’s first letter to Timothy, he denounced any Christian man who neglected his family. “But if anyone does not provide for his people, and especially his own household, he has denied the faith, and is worse than an unbeliever” (1 Timothy 5:8).
In passages that speak of greater degrees of punishment, it becomes obvious that there are varying levels of sinfulness. It is possible for evil people to become worse, and still worse yet (2 Timothy 3:13).
“Keep your servant from presumptuous sins. Let them not have dominion over me. Then I shall be upright, and I shall be innocent from great transgression” (Psalm 19:13).
1Cor.6:18 Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a person commits are outside the body, but whoever sins sexually, sins against their own body.